Ribbit

So for my yearly Chrono Trigger play through[ref]Which is a blast. I highly recommend it.[/ref] I decided to continue my quest to see every single ending without resorting to YouTube. This year I went for the ending you get for beating Lavos after coming back from 600 AD for the first time.
What disappointed me instantly was that Lucca leaves your party as soon as you get to 1000 AD. So this is another ending which requires you to fight the final boss with just two characters, Crono and Marle. Which makes it even more clear how much they thought about this since it is not only completely possible to do so, but the two were designed to work together so well.

Crono, like most main characters, is a powerhouse, but interestingly enough also has the Life spell. This gives him a non-item way to help Marle. Marle is heavy on healing magic, but what she surprisingly has is the Haste spell which is almost necessary for taking on the boss with only two characters. She has Arise which is great for keeping the amount of actions you have to take if Crono dies to a minimum.

So the battle ends up being fairly straightforward. Cast Luminaire with Crono, heal with Marle. Have them attack the one part of the core that is healed by magic. So having done it last year to get the “Beat the game at the start” ending, I was disappointed that I did not at least have Lucca in my party to change things up.

The ending was worth it, though! Reappearing back in the town square and having everyone ribbit as I talked to them was a strange, strange moment. Getting to the king and finding out by leaving things as they were in 600 AD meant Leene ran off with Frog and now the entire kingdom has a bit of a frog in their throat.

Nice ending, but I had hoped for a different Lavos fight. Chrono Trigger remains in my thoughts for many reasons, but the combo system is easily one of the greatest reasons. I wish that the multiple endings more so took into account who you used to finish the game.